


The House on the Hill

by DarkShadeless



Series: Magnolia Drive [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Creepy, Gen, Halloween story, with a touch of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 07:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20150056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkShadeless/pseuds/DarkShadeless
Summary: The situation is getting out of hand. If only mayor Gustav wasn’t the one who had to go deal with it…





	The House on the Hill

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say, I'm on a roll.
> 
> Edit: OMG. This is my actual 100th posted work. Omg... I... I need a moment. Oh wow.

Laona is a nice town, a pretty little gem of a village a little out of the way and all the more precious for it. People come here to relax and breathe some fresh country air. They pass through to make pictures of their quaint, old houses and carefully tended gardens.

Mayor Gustav is rather proud of that and has been since his first term. He’s on his seventh, this year, as his greying hair and slightly portly stature can attest to.

Yes, Laona is a nice place… and then there is Magnolia drive.

It’s the last turn, a little ways out of town and there’s only one house, at the very end. That doesn’t stop the entire street from being a stain on their village’s reputation. So the Neighborhood Association President keeps saying at town hall meetings, at least and… Gustav can’t really object. Not when _this _is what waits for you when you pass the slightly worn sign that proclaims ‘_Magnolia Drive’ _in flaking paint and set foot on the cobblestone road.

The forest gapes before him like an open maw. Someone has taken the time to encourage the trees to grow in an arch across the street but, quite frankly, that doesn’t help. Behind that entrance the road is soon lost in darkness. Mist shimmers in the air.

“Oh my. Maybe I should come back another day?”

The thing is… the thing _is _that won’t change matters, which is just another problem Nancy from the Neighborhood Association keeps complaining about.

_“And the weather! No matter if it’s sunny or rainy out, the whole street is always… like that! You know what I mean!”_

Gustav knows what she means. He’s pretty sure _everyone _who ever came through here knows what she means. And Nancy isn’t wrong. If… if a pokemon with a weather effect is responsible, there are permits for such things. Permits Annie doesn’t have.

Dear Annie… She owns the house on the hill at the end of Magnolia drive and is a sweet girl. She comes to town meetings every now and again, her and her Pikachu, and they bring cookies. Can mend anything if it’s fixed with a needle, that girl. Gustav doesn’t cherish being a bother to her but… needs must. This situation is really getting out of hand.

He steels himself. “Come on old boy. Let’s go.”

* * *

The forest Magnolia drive leads through is part of the issue. The mist becomes thick enough to cut just a few steps in, swirling around his knees with every step. Cobweb-like rags hang off the lower branches and sway in the wind. Where the trees always this gnarled?

Gustav honestly doesn’t think so and he has been living in this town all his life. He used to play in this grove when he was a child. He can’t remember it being this… _this_. A Murkrow cries in the distance and makes a shiver run down his spine.

Not a single of the streetlights is working. The wrought iron lanterns stand eerie watch like relics of a lost civilization, empty and dead. Leaves rustle in the breeze. Did that tree just move?

Gustav grips his pokeball tighter and swallows. Nancy has the right of it, doesn’t she? This whole place has turned into the nightmare of any tourist friendly town. Something must be done.

… if only he wasn’t the one who had to do it.

Reaching the end of the winding street takes forever. The mayor could swear the way didn’t use to be this long. In fact… didn’t he pass that lantern already? No, that’s, that’s impossible. He’s just nervous. Nerves will make you see anything.

When he finally gets to the edge of the forest, Gustav breathes a sigh of relief. Just a little further.

Annie’s house, too, is… eccentric. It used to be such a pretty cottage and it still is, even if the Halloween decoration is more than a little out of season. Seeing as there isn’t a hint of summer sun out and about although it was when Gustav started down the road for Magnolia it doesn’t look as out of place as it should. There’s a large pair of jack-o’-lanterns marking the door to her garden fence. Another is grinning down at him from her doorstep.

The clouds hang so low and dark there are _Zubat_ flying around, right there in the open in the middle of the day. A few of them are hanging off the skeletal tree above Annie’s vegetable garden, wriggling when they get uncomfortable in their naps.

“Goodness me, “ Gustav mutters to himself. It’s like a pokemon wildlife reserve out here. While he is watching a particularly large piece of pumpkin decoration decides it would rather sit a row to the left and inches down the garden path.

Oh dear. He hasn’t seen a Gourgeist since he tried his hand at being a trainer, back in the day. Hopefully that isn’t a wild one. That would be… Gustav tries not to think about the implications.

Crossing Annie’s garden is an exercise in self-control. He’s still eyeing the jack-o’-lanterns when he knocks, half sure one of them blinked at him.

“Annie? You there? Ann-“

The door creaks open an inch. Oh my.

Slowly Gustav pushes it open the rest of the way. Thunder rolls in the distance. Wonderful. If it starts raining now he’ll get drenched on the way home.

“Annie?”

“Come in!” her cheerful voice calls out, “I’m in the kitchen!”

Oh thank everything that’s holy. Gustav deflates more than a little. His poor nerves. He’s getting too old for this. Who knew being mayor in a nice town such as theirs would be so stressful? Last week he had to wrestle Madam Ophelia’s Roselia to deliver a complaint about the aggressive vegetation in her garden. Apparently they had taken offense to her neighbors flowers being more pretty than theirs and… taken drastic action.

At least Annie’s lawn decoration has yet to bite him in the ankle.

Inside her cottage is bright and homey. The smell of fresh cookies hangs in the air. That brightens his day until he remembers why he is here. Gustav dares to doubt Annie will be in the mood to share her cookies with this old man once he is done delivering the complaints of the Neighborhood Association at large and Nancy in particular.

He’s still trying to find a way to phrase ‘Your whole street needs an exterminator, dear.’ in a way that’s less… offensive… when he finds the kitchen. Annie’s at the stove, stirring something with a practiced hand. Strange. He didn’t smell any dinner.

“Hello, dear.”

“Hello, mayor.”

She doesn’t turn around, though she sounds friendly enough. Maybe she has an inkling as to the reason of his visit. Gustav pulls out a chair awkwardly. “If I may? My old bones aren’t what they used to be and it’s been quite a walk.” That’s one way to put it.

“Of course.”

“Chu!”

Gustav drops into the seat with no small amount of relief and smiles down at where Pikachu had hidden under the table. It’s wearing a blue bow today. How sweet.

He waits for her to make conversation but… she doesn’t. The silence grows awkward quickly. _Ah yes. Definitely knows something is up, doesn’t she?_

It’s not hard to figure out. He doesn’t make the trek out here every day. Actually, Gustav isn’t sure that _anyone _does. Does Annie even get the mail out here, or does she have to come into town to pick it up?

_Well, _he thinks to himself, not quite at ease, _if we clean up the road a bit she will._

“Look, my dear, the reason I’m here today,” Annie raises the spoon to taste whatever it is she’s cooking but she has to hold it at the wrong angle. The… soup? splashes back into the pot. She doesn’t seem to care. 

Gustav trails off. After a moment he sighs. “Oh, come now, it’s not as bad as all that. You have to admit Magnolia drive could do with some… sprucing up. Maybe you will even get new neighbors! Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Annie says nothing.

That… isn’t promising. At the end of the day she’s the only resident of Magnolia drive and without the approval of the residents the town council can barely change the lightbulbs of the lanterns at the side of the road. Technically, Annie would have to apply for that. She never has.

Whenever Nancy tries to shanghai her over it she’s all smiles and waves her off politely. 

Gustav supposes they _could _try for an exemption but that kind of thing has never sat right with him. This is where she lives, after all. That doesn’t change that he’s the mayor and as the mayor he has a few duties, among them trying to keep the peace. “Just a little lightening up would do wonders, don’t you think-“

Gustav’s eyes trail over Annie’s stiff form and fall on something else. “Annie?” She’s still not responding. In fact, he’s not sure she has moved since she lifted that spoon. “Darling, do you know that the stove isn’t turned on?”

“I’m not allowed to turn on the stove.” Her voice is strangely hollow all of a sudden. A cold, uncomfortable feeling creeps into Gustav’s bones.

“… what?” His faint inquiry is overshadowed by Pikachu’s enthusiastic agreement.

“Pika-pika! **_Chu_.**”

Dread reaches for Gustav’s heart. That. That last bit. Hadn’t sounded right. It hadn’t sounded right at all. Slowly, ever so slowly he looks down at Pikachu, though his brain is screaming at him not to. It’s like he has no control over his body.

The sweet little Pikachu at his feet… flickers. That’s the only way Gustav can think to describe it. It shivers in and out of focus like a mirage, glossy fur to patched rags, adorable snout to a stitched mimicry of the same. It’s eyes grow black and dead. The ears look… wrong. They look wrong. On one of them someone has fixed a blue bow.

“Oh, gods,” he breathes before he can think better of it. The… creature, the thing, stares right into his soul. At the stove Annie puts her spoon back into the pot.

“Don’t you like Pikachu?” She, too, sounds _wrong_. Gustav barely dares to unglue his eyes from the abomination at his feet to look her way. When he does, she finally turns to him.

Only she doesn’t turn around. Her _head_ moves, while her body stays perfectly still, like a dolls head, all the way until she’s facing him. Her eyes and smile are just as drawn on and fake as her Pikachu’s.

Gustav screams.

He backpedals so quickly he falls over, chair and all, but he doesn’t stop to think about that. He can’t. Horror fills him to the brim. His whole world is tunneling to consist only of that terrible, homely scene, Annie at the stove and her Pikachu under the table, watching her cook. Only _not_. Everything about it is wrong, wrong, wrong-

“Oh _gods_,” he gasps out as he scrambles to his feet.

“Ma-**_yor_**?” Her voice breaks in the middle of the word and turns into something out of nightmares. Still light and sweet but cracking around the edges like a faulty radio transmission.

Gustav doesn’t answer. He runs.

* * *

“Mimi? Kyu? Was there someone at the door?”

The kitchen is a bit of a mess, all told, when Annie manages to untangle herself from her cleaning spree in the attic. A chair has been tipped over and the floor is muddy. She’ll have to wash up again.

A sigh escapes her. Oh well. “I could have sworn…”

Her darlings look up at her in perfect innocence. Not even their bows are askew.

Yeah. Mommy is pretty sure her babies have been up to something.

She takes in the scene a second time and that’s when she sees it. “Oh, dear. Have you been trying to cook again?”

“Mimi!”

“Kyuuu!”

They protest immediately, pointing at the knob of the stove with the little arms of their costumes. Annie takes a heavy breath in relief and barely averted fear. “I see. You remembered the rule, did you?”

“Mi!”

“Kyu!”

No turning on the stove. Not ever. It’s okay if they want to be just like mama but they’re not allowed to use the dangerous electronics when she’s not there. “Well done, you two. Let’s give this a taste, then, hm?”

Looks like they used water and threw in some spices. Maybe she can make a soup out of that? Call it a group project. That does sound wonderful. A few cookies wouldn’t hurt either, she’s running low again…

**Author's Note:**

> Why, yes, Magnolia drive in Laona is the kind of place an aspiring pokemon trainer would go to catch some ghost pokemon. But beware, there’s something in this wood and it doesn’t like you being here…


End file.
